AMERI Agreement Has Further Exposed Corrupt Nature Of NDC Gov�t - NPP MP

Member of Parliamentary Select Committee on Mines and Energy, Hon. Joseph Cudjoe says the brouhaha surrounding the agreement between the NDC government and Africa&Middle East Resources Investment Group (AMERI Energy) is another corrupt landmark of the government.

According to the NPP MP for Efia Constituency in the Western Region, corruption which is characterized with the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government is getting out of hand citing the AMERI Energy agreement as a clear evidence.

“When you look at AMERI Agreement, it has exposed the corruption in NDC government as we have always talked about. Some of us were considered rebel against development in this country but because it is coming from a foreign journalist, we are now taking it serious,” he chided.

Parliament had on March 20, 2015, approved the Build, Own, Operate and Transfer Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Ghana and Africa and Middle East Resources Investment Group Llc (AMERI Energy) for the installation of ten (10) GE TM 2,500+ aero derivative gas turbines, operate, maintain, transfer and provision of support services.

Per the commercial terms of the agreement, Ghana is expected to pay US$850,000 per month per unit of the derivative gas turbines which has an output of 23MW.

That means the country is expected to make a total payment of US$102million per year for the ten derivative gas turbines with a variable charge of US$0.005/kwh (US$16.6million per annum).

However, on Okay Fm’s Ade Akye Abia Morning Show, Hon. Joseph Cudjoe revealed that Members of the Minority on the Select Committee on Mines and Energy challenged the agreement at the committee meeting.

As part of the effort to ascertain the authenticity of the AMERI agreement, Hon. Cudjoe said he demanded for the Lease and Purchase analysis document of the agreement as the right step to help to know if the government is doing the right thing, but the government couldn’t provide any.

"...NDC in Majority used their numerical advantage to pushed the agreement through and now they are back in Parliament saying the money involved is too much after the Minority in Parliament hinted on countless times that the plant could be bought at the cost of USD$220 million," he bemoaned.